[Start a business] 19 truth surprising entrepreneurs

[Blogger's note] recently I saw Paul Graham's new article "What startups are really like", which has benefited a lot and is deeply touched. I just saw a Chinese translation version, so I will share it with you. The content of the original English version is more detailed. It is recommended that users with good English Reading Ability read the original version. Paul Graham is the godfather of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial circle. He suggested reading all his articles, especially how to start a startup, which is almost a must for entrepreneurs...

 

 

 

Original English address: Http://www.paulgraham.com/really.html

 

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Y Combinator's Paul Graham's recent essay on startup is very interesting and enlightening to entrepreneurs. I like Paul's article very much. Like many investors, Paul is also an entrepreneur. In his early years, viaweb was successfully sold to Yahoo. Starting from, he and the original partner tried to work in the investment field
Start a business ", with a brand new model for investment. Founders at Work provides a detailed introduction of Paul and YC.

As a programmer, Paul has his own unique and profound insights on startup and investment. In this essay titled "What startups are really like", Paul raised an interesting question to founder of hundreds of companies invested in YC: when starting a new company, what surprised them most?

The following are some of the biggest surprise (Paul's original article is very long and contains many founder's specific answers. I only extract some important points and add my own points, it is recommended that you read the original article and Paul's other articles about entrepreneurship if you are interested in or are starting a business. This will not disappoint you :-)):

1.Be careful with cofounders: This is a surprise mentioned by the vast majority of founders. For a non-successful startup, this means more about choosing a partner. Many people hope that they do not focus on competence, but on character and determination when choosing partners. On the other hand, the founders of successful startup are more focused on maintaining relationships between partners. Many people refer to the relationship between partners as marriage. Some people have a direct answer: It's like we're married, but we're not fucking. In the initial stage of the company, the Founder is the whole company. The healthy and stable relationship between the founders is the cornerstone of the company.

2.Startups take over your life: Just as the relationship between the founder and his colleagues is different, the relationship between the founder and his company is also different from that between the employee and the company. Once you start to run your own company, almost all the time you are awake will be used to work or think about things related to the company. My own experience is that sometimes I may even get confused and mix a lot of daily things with the "strange" questions I am thinking about, sometimes falling asleep is constantly thinking about a problem and unconsciously enters the unconscious state :-)

3.It's an emotional roroller-coaster ):When you start a business, it is very likely that things seem amazing. You even think that you are the next Google company and want to buy a small island for a vacation, but it will not be long before you feel terrible and desperately want to give up. The interval is sometimes only a few hours. Of course, the biggest surprise is the low tide, especially after a long period of time that is not worth celebrating. Everyone has a limit. If this limit is reached, you do not need to feel the end of the world. Numerous examples of successful entrepreneurs prove that failure is an inevitable episode on the road to success. Or, as Tom Kelley suggested: Treat life as an experiment

4.It can be fun: Entrepreneurship is sometimes an interesting thing for entrepreneurs who really invest in entrepreneurship. This is why there are so many serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. Freedom is the favorite part of many people. This may also be why many entrepreneurs (such as Blogger & Twitter's Evan Williams) are reluctant to buy a company (even Google) to work for people after the company is acquired.

5.Persistence is the key:Everyone knows that persistence is very important, but it is not only important for entrepreneurship, but also the key to the survival of the company. Some Founder said they insisted that they had overcome the seemingly impossible difficulties beyond their control. Here I think of an example that Scott kriens, CEO of juniper, talked about. One of his previous companies had struggled with VC money for five years. After five years, the Founder could not see the hope that he would give up. VC felt that the money had also gone in and it was hard to explain to LP, we encourage them to stick to it. As a result, the same group of people made the same product, which brought the company back to life in the next five years and became a successful listed company. The reason is that the market has changed and began to accept their products. Scott thinks this is a very important example to illustrate the market. I think this also demonstrates the significance of persistence. Persistence is often more important than the intelligence and ability of the founder, which also responds to the response when selecting a partner in 1.
The idea of character and determination is more important.

6.Think long-term: Many founders are surprised to see the progress of the company as quickly as they expected. They think they should succeed as quickly as YouTube or Facebook. Even if Paul tells them that only one of the 100 successful startups can have an example like YouTube, they will still feel that they are the "1 ". For the vast majority of startups, it takes at least three years (maybe five years) to succeed. In the long run, you can set your mind to work under less pressure. As David Allen said in getting things done, pressure and efficiency are inversely proportional.

7.Lots of little things:Paul stressed one thing that may easily lead many entrepreneurs to get wrong fantasies: A magical idea or a killer feature will make you succeed. There may be such examples, but there are really few. Google's success does not depend on PageRank, but on many innovations in infrastructure (GFS), business (adwords), and Yahoo! Deal (giving it enough data to learn and improve algorithms) and other cooperative operation efforts. Don't put your eggs in one basket, even if you know which basket is the safest. Moreover, start-ups often do not know the basket. The so-called killer feature was discovered only after many attempts. Therefore, the best strategy may be to try a lot of small idea at the lowest possible cost, and be lucky. Maybe the idea will become the magic idea that you have succeeded in.

8.Start with something minimal:For Internet applications, quick iteration of Small versions has become a consensus. It is absolutely the truth of Internet innovation to publish a product that contains the least functions but is still complete in the shortest time! The reason many people do not want to do so may be "vanity ". They do not want to publish products that can be better, and worry about how people around them will evaluate them. This is even true for broader development. For example, founder David Heinemeier Hansson of Rube on Rails said that the first version he released had only a few thousand lines of code!

9.Engage users:An important advantage of releasing a product as soon as possible is that real user feedback can be obtained as soon as possible. These functions can be further improved. Even if the product is "useless" for users, users may tell you what they really need. Therefore, we can use the first version as a tool to start conversations with users.

10.Change your idea:To benefit from conversations with users, you need to be able to accept a changed open mind. Including changes to core idea. Paul suggested founders to regard idea as a hypothesis to be verified, rather than a plan to be executed. As founders at work reveals, the core products (businesses) of a large number of successful enterprises are far from their original idea. Regardless of feedback from users and the market, blindly sticking to your own idea is the cause of the failure of many companies. However, for entrepreneurs who are not very experienced, it is difficult to choose whether to change or stick to it. The key to success and the wisdom of entrepreneurship often depend on this.

11.Don't worry about competitors: Many seemingly competitors actually do not have much to do. Even if they do the same thing, they may have no purpose. One possible reason the founders are overly concerned about competitors is that they are too concerned about their own idea. But what really matters is not idea, but execution. It turns this idea into a product that is useful to users and can make money. Joe on software says he never cares about what competitors do. He only cares about his customers. All the things that your competitors can let you know will tell you :-)

12.It's hard to get users: Paul admitted that YC did not emphasize how to get users. Not all products can be promoted by word of mouth like Google. Baidu's initial rise was based on the famous "Sina shutdown event ". Cooperation and the market are necessary to win users (especially in the early stages), especially in an environment where a large number of products are competing for homogeneous competition on the Internet.

13.Except CT the worst with deals: It is extremely difficult for start-ups to cooperate with large companies or raise funds. Start-ups seem to be weak, and their great revolutionary idea is often incomprehensible. Do not assume that you can get the money, even if you have already got the money, you 'd better assume that this is the final financing (this also prevents the founder from blindly expanding and doing too much marketing ). The Founder is confident and optimistic about his own abilities, but optimistic about other things that he cannot control is often easy to disappoint or even despair.

14.Investors are clueless: A large number of founders are surprised by the ignorance of the companies and fields they are dealing. One Founder said that a VC invested in a hardware company, but this guy won't start up. Angel is better. This may be related to areas that they often invest in.

15.You may have to play games: VC is not very familiar with the companies to be invested, which gives the founder the opportunity to "Disguise" himself to a certain extent. In order to get VC money, they will make themselves look "professional" and "confident ". Taking the above step, VC also wins the favor of LP by making itself look "professional.

16.Luck is a big factor: This is not explained. It is interesting to have a statement about luck and success: Success is 50 percent luck and 50 percent preparedness for that luck.

17.The value of community: Many people have mentioned the help of YC's community. More importantly, the entrepreneurial atmosphere in Silicon Valley and the selfless help of many enthusiastic people make me look forward to and envy me. Entrepreneurship is a very difficult process. Only people who have experienced and are experienced can experience it. Putting yourself in a good entrepreneurial community will be helpful.

18.You get no respect: Beyond the entrepreneurial circle, entrepreneurs do not have any respect. "I work at Microsoft" is more respectful than "I work at a startup named X. On the one hand, the reason is that many people are not very familiar with entrepreneurship, on the other hand, many good entrepreneurial ideas seem very bad.

19.Things change as you grow

Finally, Paul summarized the commonalities of these surprise, that is, founders treats startup with the expectation of a general job. Therefore, there may be fewer surprise people (such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in the past) than they do :-)